Laura Simone Lewis

Assistant Professor

Research Area

Developmental and Evolutionary Psychology

Biography

Laura Simone Lewis earned her B.S. in Evolutionary Anthropology and Biology from Duke University, and earned her Ph.D. in Human Evolutionary Biology from Harvard University where her research was supported by an NSF Graduate Research Fellowship. She is a UC President’s Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Psychology at UC Berkeley and will join the faculty at UC Santa Barbara in 2025 with a joint appointment in the departments of Psychological and Brain Sciences and Anthropology. Laura is committed to scientific excellence and compassionate mentorship, and is passionate about creating a scientific world that is more diverse, equitable, just, and kind.

Research

Humans and our great ape cousins have extraordinary socio-cognitive capacities that are at the core of our evolutionary success. My lab explores the ontogenetic and phylogenetic patterns of social cognition in humans and other great apes. Using cutting-edge non-invasive technology like eye tracking, thermal imaging, and behavioral methods we aim to uncover how mechanisms of social cognition evolve across time and develop across ontogeny in humans, chimpanzees, and bonobos. My lab specifically focuses on great apes’ abilities to form, build, and deepen social relationships and understand the minds and relationships of others.

Selected Publications

Lewis, L. S., Wessling, E. G., Kano, F., Stevens, J. M., Call, J., & Krupenye, C. (2023). Bonobos and chimpanzees remember familiar conspecifics for decades. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(52), e2304903120.

Lewis, L. S. & Krupenye, C. (2022). Eye-tracking as a window into great ape social cognition. American Journal of Primatology, e23393.  *Wiley Top Cited Article 2021 - 2023

Lewis, L. S. and Krupenye, C. (2022). Theory of mind in nonhuman primates. In B. L. Schwartz & M. J. Beran (Eds.), Primate Cognitive Studies. Cambridge University Press.

Lewis, L. S., Kano, F., Stevens, J. M., DuBois, J. G., Call, J., & Krupenye, C. (2021). Bonobos and chimpanzees preferentially attend to familiar members of the dominant sex. Animal Behaviour, 177, 193-206.